DNC Rules And Bylaws Cmte Crunches The Numbers
ShareThe Democratic National Committee's rules and bylaws committee, tasked with selecting at least one new early caucus for 2008, met via teleconference this evening. The purpose: metrics.
The Hotline's Justin Miller listened in (legally).
The criteria examined were states' population, population growth, ethnic/racial diversity, union presence as a percentage of the workforce, the '92, '00, '04 (but not '96) presidential election results, registered voters, registered Dems, electoral votes, and the partisan composition of the gov., legislature, Cong. delegation, and geographic size.
(Attached is a PDF grid of the criteria. Note: MI's Cong. del. should read "6 Dems, 9 GOPers.")
NV, AZ and CO were attractive to the RBCers with double-digit population growth, as well as AK and SC.
DC and MS were noted for having the first -- and second --largest African-American populations (as percentages) while AZ, HI, WV, NH and IA had the lowest black population compositions of the group. The Hispanic population (nationally, larger than the U.S. black population by 2%) is twice the national average in AZ and high in NV and CO.
Asian-Pacific Islanders were are well-above the nat. avg. in HI and NV. Native American populations are sizable in NV and AZ, while mirroring the nat. avg. in AK and CO.
Labor gave HI, MI, WV and NV some advantages compared to AK and SC, which have the lowest percentage of unionized workers among the 11 states.
Most states did not attract attention for their pres. election results, but two: Michigan with it's nearly-identical margins for the Dems in '00 and '04 and CO's losses to the GOP, but the Dems' "50 State Partnership will turn that around," one member said (confidently).
The RBC will next convene via telephone on 6/22 and then meet in-person in Washington on 7/22-23.
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